awesomeness is awesome

1. I work for a large educational institution in Australia. Some 7 or 8 years ago we had an Microsoft Access based database that had morphed through several versions of Access. It was a complex database and had one major flaw, when the interface opened up it opened in an actual record - users tended to start data entry on top of an existing record plus other features that annoyed the heck out of the users. Our IT was centralised but we also did some local support (by me), untrained but with hands on experience. So one day - April 1 - I sent out an email advising of a new interface which could be used for most purposes which overcame these problems and asked people to register for training by lunch time. The new interface was called Lirpa1 - 1 April backwards, and another name - Devil - as our normal interface was called GODS. I mentioned this to one person, luckily, because they suggested I tell second boss up as a precaution. Apart from catching those who could reasonably expect to be caught, three things happened. First, I came back from getting a coffee and first boss up, whom I would describe as a female agressivebikie moll type protecting her authority, was standing by my door with second boss who had been talking to her. Neither admitted it outright (second boss hinted several years later) but first boss up had turned up to yell at me for announcing a major change without her authority and to ask what the f. I was doing etc., etc. and second boss had stopped the outburst in time :) Second, one of our data analysts, who should have known better, at a meeting several days later praised this initiative. By that time everyone else knew about the joke but didn't know where to look during this praise. Third, and this took me several years to realise the probable cause, some four or five months later the data analysts were given access to the background tables which allowed them to run proper queries and reports without all the glitches. I can't help thinking that in my ignorance my joke had shown the way to an easy solution once they had thought about it. No one said thanks! <a href="http://www.jdmag.com">awesomeness squared</a> http://www.jdmag.com [URL href="http://jdmag.com"]http://jdmag.com[/URL] <a href="http://www.jdmag.com">awesomeness squared</a>